Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs Great end to a rough season!

April 30 (Monday - Last day of the Bama season)

Two of my 3 children were out of school. Also, my mother-in-law was coming to the house to stay for a couple weeks while undergoing further cancer treatment. I needed to do a few more things to get the house ready for her to stay so I took off work. I was crazily curious to see if any turkeys would gobble now that he was gone. However, the only gobbling I had heard about from anybody was in the middle of the day. My youngest son has never been nearly as much of a hunter as my oldest one, but he takes spells that he likes to try new styles of hunting. He had never been turkey hunting with me til yesterday. After me coaxing him a bit about how fun it would be to stop and talk with the landowner (he is a socialite to say the least!) and his other elderly pals out in the workshop, told him he could take his slingshot, reminded him we wouldn't stay long and wouldn't have to sit still for long (he hates that part), etc. etc....he finally relented and agreed to go. We hit the road close to 10:00 and arrived at the landowner's house right around 10:30. We sat in the shop and laughed until we cried at those old men picking at each other. They fell in love with Elijah and vice versa. We eventually left the shop around 11:45 and drove up to a parking place where I wanted to start (so he wouldn't have to climb at all really...mainly just flat walking on 4 wheeler roads). We started walking around high noon. We would stop at every mudhole along the road and he would stalk frogs and try to kill em with his slingshot. I would call at every stop and of course it was dead silent. Around 1:20 we finally made it out to a place that I fell in love with when I started hunting this place last season. It is one of the most beautiful turkey places I have ever seen in the mountains of Jackson County. I showed Elijah a giant white oak and told him that I had prayed/asked God to please let me kill a turkey at some point while sitting against that giant white oak. Elijah was looking for frogs in a mudhole in the road about 30 yards from that giant white oak and I yelp and cut on my mouth call and was almost positive I heard a turkey answer me way off. It sounded like it was way out ahead of us off of that point we were on top of but I wasn't even sure it wasn't a woodpecker as the wind had picked up just a little. I stood there about a minute and yelped again and he didn't answer. I told Elijah it was prolly a long shot but there was a chance that was a turkey and that we needed to get over to that white oak and get sat down ASAP. He is a lefty and I sat him up so the turkey would be on his right if he came walking up that road. There was a small sapling in his swing arc and I meant two or three times to tell him to put his gun on the right side of it but we had to mess with his cushion, etc. and I kept forgetting. I told him to look through the Fastfire, put the gun on his knee and get comfortable, made sure he remembered how to work the safety, etc. We no more got still and I heard pffft doooooommm. I told Elijah do not move and that I believe I just heard that turkey drum and pretty close. I almost immediately starting hearing traffic in the distance and it always has a bass type sound when it first enters your hearing so I started doubting again...especially given I ain't struck a bird all year! While I was whispering to Elijah about that he told me he could hear something walking in the leaves (I can't hear walking in the leaves at all anymore) and I asked him where. He said right here on my right. I slipped my head around and looked between his head and that giant white oak and here comes that turkey walking up the road. He walked right to where I had called from and stopped looking around. I could not BELIEVE it! I told him he is right there Elijah and he never could see him at 30 yards in wide open hardwoods standing in that road. He wasn't looking hard enough to his right. The bird finally started walking again and he finally saw him. I reminded him that I was gonna start yelping at him and that he needed to move his gun up and over that tree while I was calling and that he had about 3 seconds to get him killed. When the turkey cleared a couple trees he gave me the green light, I started yelping, he gobbled in our face, and Elijah about jumped out of his skin with the gun sorta falling off his knee and almost dropping it completely. Disaster! I just started cutting like wild and that turkey started putting and gobbling in between each set of putts. I told Elijah he needed to get him killed and quick! He finally got the gun in the vicinity of the bird and the turkey was on his way out of there. I told him he had one last shot when he next cleared and when he did I started cutting again and he slowed his walk just enough for Elijah to wad him up at 42 yards. I figured there was no way he had killed that turkey and expected to see him fly or run but that wasn't the case when I got up and ran over there! Flopping at 1:30! I got my boot on his neck and Elijah came running behind me and fell in the edge of his previous frog hunting mudhole. LOL! He was WOUND UP and his Dad was even worse! I still can't believe it happened like it did and on the last day! We had a big photo session at that ol big white oak and eventually went down to the landowner's shop and let the old men brag on him real good while he told the story. He was the king of mountain turkey hunting to hear him tell it! What an unbelievable blessing and end to what had previously been a very frustrating turkey season all the way around. Blessed beyond measure!!!

Another good mountain turkey:

19 lb 13 oz (he really liked that his was a few ounces heavier than mine from the day before)
10.5" beard (same for the longer beard LOL!)
1 1/8" and 1" spurs